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Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Software Focus: Photoshop - How to create a vintage postcard

I recently bought Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine and the free postage stamp stamps gave me the idea to create postcard-style Christmas greeting cards. I searched Google images, but couldn't find the perfect image. The ones I did like were watermarked and had to be paid for, so I decided to create my own. For this, I turned to Photoshop Elements. I use this program all the time to correct my photos and add my watermark before publishing, but it is also a great tool for being more creative. (You can find a great tutorial on how to create your own watermark here.)Creating the postcardFirst I found the images I wanted to use (vintage paper, place stamp here and vintage postcard) and saved them. Most images are in jpg. format and will have a white background. This needs to be removed first in order to place them over coloured backgrounds. Open the images in Photoshop and use the Magic Eraser to delete the white areas. You can then save each one as a png. file for later use.

Once the white area is removed, the image will look like this:

Do the same for both images and also open the vintage paper file, then create a new file the size you'd like the postcard. I used 15x10.5cm.

Next use the Move tool to drag the vintage paper from the bottom into the new file you created. Resize it so it overlaps the new file and click the tick to approve. (tip: you may need to rotate it to landscape first)

Do the same with the two images. You will need to fiddle about with resizing and moving until it looks right.

You then need to add some lines to finish off the look. Use the Pencil tool at 1px. To make this easier, view the grid and make sure snap to grid is ticked.

Hold down the Shift key while drawing the lines as this will keep them straight. (tip: create a new layer to draw the lines in case you make a mistake)

Your postcard is almost complete, so just flatten the image to bring all the elements together (tip: you can remove the grid view to see better now)

And this is what your postcard should look like. Save as png. or other image file to print out in another program. You can also save the Photoshop (PSD) file to be able to change it if you like.

Once you have printed the image, trim to size and glue to the front of a card blank ready for embellishing. This is one I have done:

Dislaimer

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I have posted projects containing components I have received for free or received perks in return for posts on my blog. I would never make or endorse misleading statements regarding any product or service used in the operation of this blog.

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